GeoXchange

ArcGIS Pro 1.4 was released last week and hopefully some of you have already had a look at the new features. ArcGIS Pro now covers the workflows I typically use and my days of dipping back into ArcMap may be over. It also brings lots of new capabilities and options to the desktop user.

GeoAnalytics is one of the new server roles now available with ArcGIS Enterprise, released at 10.5. You may already have heard about it or seen one of the hugely impressive (and impressively huge) demos at recent events. Perhaps you're still wondering what GeoAnalytics is, how it works and how you can use it in your organisation?

QuestionWhere is an Esri UK application that allows you to easily build a questionnaire or survey. By using the ArcGIS platform, the survey can go beyond recording peoples answers and work with your businesses workflows and processes. This blog highlights the functionality that QuestionWhere has to offer and shows how you can benefit from using them in an example survey.

The ArcGIS 10.5 release is almost with us and is bringing some major changes to those of you working with ArcGIS for Server. Following on from the 10.5 release will be the next version or ArcGIS Pro, 1.4. We'll be looking at some of the new capabilities in detail in the new year but here's an overview to set the scene.

If you have designed an ArcGIS Open Data site in the last 6 months or so, you might have noticed the option to test the beta site. The final release has now arrived - Open Data 2.0 - and with that comes some significant changes. Check out what's new here and take a look at our new Open Data site: opendata.esriuk.com.

A few weeks ago, tech-heads from various firms across London gathered at the Geovation Hub in Farringdon to support Comic Relief in a mapathon. I was there to provide technical help to the teams, but wanted to share some of the great ideas that attendees came up with.

Even if your data doesn't include the z values needed for 3D analysis, you can still create a 3D visualisation to help understand how the features sit in the landscape. At this year's Scottish Conference I included this in a short tech session on 3D in ArcGIS Pro. As well as looking at the visual impact of forest blocks, I also took 2D data representing a wind farm in the Scottish Borders and created a 3D visualisation of the site. The full details for the steps involved are in the help but I thought I'd take you through some of the questions you need to consider.

As America prepares to elect its 45th president, many media agencies are opting to use cartograms instead of traditional maps. Want to know why? As well as looking at the general benifts of using cartograms I've also looked at the strengths and weaknesses of different types.

We’ve been busy getting a new version of QuestionWhere released and have packed it with new functionality. This blog goes into what we’ve added and how you can begin to use these new enhancements in your applications.

ArcGIS Online got its latest update last night. The list of changes is modest but there are some really useful things in there. I've picked out: scale ranges for labels and editing related features via a web app. There are also a couple of new beta application templates to try ahead of their future release.

Catching up on the videos from the Esri User Conference in San Diego is a great way to see what’s new and what’s coming. For me though, the highlight is the customer stories – seeing how the capabilities of ArcGIS are applied in real world situations. This year the story that caught my attention has drones, mobile GIS, 3D, public engagement maps, Norse history... and a GIS enabled dog.

Survey123 for ArcGIS got its formal release this summer. It provides a mechanism to configure form based surveys (that include location) using a spreadsheet. I had my first go at creating a survey last week and decided to include a cascading question - where the options available for the second question depend on the answer to the first. For my project, I was also interested in Survey123's potential for mobile data collection.

I've been looking at ArcGIS Pro 1.3, released last week, which continues to expand the GIS capabilities in Pro. Support for geodatabase topology has been added, along with various additions and refinements to the analysis tools. You can now add and work with KML layers in you maps. Vector tile layers can also now be added to maps and scenes. As usual you can see the full details in the what's new page, illustrated with examples. A couple of other new features have allowed me to enhance some windfarm maps I'll be using this week, so I've focused on these.

Collector for ArcGIS is a great piece of kit to mobilise employees and allow them to collect data while in the field. Being able to use Collector for ArcGIS offline has meant that field work can be done anywhere and it’s quicker than using a pen and paper!

The common workflow is to synchronise data via a feature service, in ArcGIS Online or Portal, but if this isn't practical for you don't despair! Today we’re going to look at how we can use Collector for ArcGIS offline in the field and then bring the data collected back into your organisation without syncing it to ArcGIS Online.

The summer's update to ArcGIS Online went live at the end of last week. It brings us a mixture of new capabilities and further refinements to the content management and administration functions. In this post I'm taking a look at two key changes - the new Item page and time options in Smart Mapping. Remember to check the what's new page for a full list.

Within ArcGIS Online you now get free access to five high quality basemaps for Great Britain called the OS Open Basemaps. They have been created using the latest Ordnance Survey Open Data products and enhanced for use within the ArcGIS Platform. The basemaps are an important addition to ArcGIS Online as they use the British National Grid (BNG) Projection system. These basemaps are an exciting new addition to ArcGIS Online and therefore I have written this post to highlight some of the important differences between each of them.

The Environment Agency have recently released the first delivery of their LIDAR Point Cloud dataset as open data. This release is part of the wider project which will see Defra release 8,000 datasets as open data this summer. The Environment Agency has used the data since 2005 to generate height models, mainly for flood modelling and coastal mapping.

I have spent some time exploring the LIDAR point cloud dataset, now released as open data, to see how it can be used within the ArcsGIS platform with some simple use cases.

Last autumn the Lidar data captured by the Environment agency of England and Natural Resources Wales were released as open data, collectively covering 70% of England and Wales. This amazing data resource has now been incorporated into the Esri World Elevation services, by including data from the Lidar derived DTM (bare earth).